I seem to be having a great deal of trouble with passing at the moment. I hasten to add that when I go to the toilet there are no difficulties whatsoever. But it seems to be daily that my irritation increases when I hear that B.B.King or David Bowie or some obscure
character actor “has passed” or “passed away”. They’ve passed? No, they haven’t! They have died. The word is died. They are in the past. They have gone. Passed in this case is a euphemism which is a way of avoiding reality, to avoid telling it as it is, which in this case is deceased.
Passing is what you do with a football or when you are in a hurry and passing other cars. Passing. It goes on all the time and there is a lot of it. Pass the salt. Please pass me the salad or the wine bottle. Endless passing. No arguments there. And we all pass wind about six to ten times a day whether you like it or not. But this has nothing to do with
dying! So when I die I want people to say “He died”. Died. He’s dead. Or she is deceased. They are no longer with us. Extinct. Finished. Kicked the bucket. The last farewell. Th
big sleep. Dead like roadkill. There is no sorry about this folks, the people you know have not passed. They have gone. It is over. We have been dying for thousands of year
and it’s not going to change.
And we have to ask if we all pass or do some of us fail? I
we do pass, where do we pass to and do we have a choice?
Do we all just pass over to the other side? The other side of what? Perhaps we all pass into heaven and enjoy an everlasting sunny garden party? Not much oxygen up in heaven; do you think they’ll notice? And we have to question if all races and religions and ethnic groups pass? Arabs? Christians? Buddhists? Kiwis? Is it possible that Buddhists will pass over to some other place and then come back as owls or reindeer or bats? Is there any chance that Jewish people will come back as healthy little pigs. These are serious questions which go totally unanswered!
I blame the United States for butchering the English language and emphatically blame them for the increasing use of “passes” or “passing to the other side” What do the Americans know about passing that we don’t? They can’t even pronounce Melbourne correctly! It is not “Melborn”. And what do Americans know about anything? Twenty nine percent of them can’t identify the North American continent on a world map! Hard to believe but true. So I ask you why are we following their lead on death ? Twenty six percent of them don’t believe in evolution. They think we got here by other means. From other planets perhaps? From spirits in the sky as they flew by our planet? Did we come from people who passed earlier and came back a second time? Did we have to pass some hidden barrier to get here or do we only “pass” at the finish?
And it appears that more and more funeral businesses are refusing to use the word
death. Did you, the reader, go pale at the word death? Hope you didn’t pass out!
How dare funeral directors set themselves up as arbiters of politeness and taste.
When it is my turn they will know nothing of my life but no doubt they will sanitise it!
Just like a bottle of milk. But all I want at my funeral is loud laughter and joyous smiles.
So now I’m almost finished with this little rant, all I’m asking is to please stop using this “pass” word. It has become a passionate dislike of mine and all I want is a peaceful death, no pleading, no pain, no pressure. Just a quiet slipping away, if I’m lucky. Thank you but I’ll pass on any other options. Goodnight now.
John A Wilson, December 29 2017, Gold Coast
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